Park History

One of San Antonio's neighborhood parks has been named three times -- twice for prominent aviators. Robert A. Dawson Park was originally laid out in 1890 by the A.M. Walters Real Estate Investment Company, a Nebraska development firm. The company set aside four acres for a park at the center of its East End subdivision, and named it simply, East End Park. The Walters Company also built a streetcar line to East End, but few houses were constructed there until after 1900. After flyer Charles A. Lindbergh's historic trans-Atlantic flight in 1927, the park was named in his honor.

Almost 60 years later, citizens petitioned in 1986 to re-name the park for another aviator, Robert A. Dawson, a 1935 graduate of Phyllis Wheatley High School. Dawson, San Antonio's first licensed African American pilot, trained as an Army Air Corps flying cadet during World War II. Shortly before completing his training in 1942, Dawson was killed in an air crash. Dawson Park honors his legacy as a role model for the community.